Orlando Dr. Phillips senior offensive lineman Colby Meeks participated at a football camp at Colorado State this past week and he liked it so much that he decided to commit to play for the Rams on Wednesday.

Meeks, a 6-foot-3, 270-pounder who has played tackle for much of his Dr. Phillips career but will move to guard this year, picked the Rams over offers from UAB and Holy Cross.

"I feel pretty excited. There wasn't really a trigger. I just liked it and everything and so I figured, 'Why wait?" Meeks said. "I like the tradition that they have going there and I like the coaches and players, plus they have a couple of my teammates up there, as well."

Meeks, who plans to sign with the Rams on Feb. 4, National Signing Day, will be eventually joining Dr. Phillips teammates ATH Deionte Gaines and K Ricky Buckner, who are both freshmen at CSU this season. Also on Wednesday, former Dr. Phillips running back Dee Hart, who started his college career at Alabama, said he plans to enroll at CSU for his junior season.

CSU graduate assistant Ricky Santo played an instrumental role in recruiting Meeks to the Fort Collins school. Santo was a DP assistant football coach and head softball coach until 2011, when he left for the Ohio State program and eventually moved on the CSU prior to last season.

"He's been a good friend," said Meeks, who first found out he was on the CSU radar during spring football, and he was offered a scholarship following camp this past Friday.

Meeks said it was a fairly easy decision, but he still had to make his choice and he discussed it with his family following his camp experience.

"It was kind of an intense discussion, debating how good the school is academically and football-wise," he said. "It was pretty easy though, because it's a pretty nice campus up there and it's a pretty good team, so it wasn't that hard."

Meeks said he is happy to get his decision out of the way so he can join the rest of his DP teammates in focusing soley on returning to the Class 8A state championship game, where DP lost to Miami Central in 2010. The Panthers have been undefeated in each of the past two regular seasons only to get knocked out of the playoffs, so they want to change that this season.

"It gets rid of any distractions so I can just focus on football this year," Meeks said of his commitment. "I think we can win it. We've got a bigger and better line,we've got a better backfield and a better defense now."

Meeks said he is still deciding whether he will graduate early. He's an exceptional student who carries a 3.7 GPA and scored a 27 on the ACT. One factor that could come into play in his decision-making might be a final chance at wrestling for a state title.

He finished second last year in the state Class 3A wrestling tournament and he might want one more shot at joining his brothers, Alton and Dylan, each of whom have already won state wrestling crowns.

Alton Meeks is a redshirt freshman linebacker at Iowa State and Dylan Meeks is a sophomore linebacker/defensive end at DP.

This time, something strange and wonderful happened. The skies cleared, the rain stopped and the starving blind man gorged himself on a much-needed victory and finally regained his sight ¿ the vision of making the playoffs.